Coupling Constant Corrections in a Holographic Model of Heavy Ion Collisions

We initiate a holographic study of coupling-dependent heavy ion collisions by analyzing, for the first time, the effects of leading-order, inverse coupling constant corrections. In the dual description, this amounts to colliding gravitational shock waves in a theory with curvature-squared terms. We find that, at intermediate coupling, nuclei experience less stopping and have more energy deposited near the light cone. When the decreased coupling results in an 80% larger shear viscosity, the time at which hydrodynamics becomes a good description of the plasma created from high energy collisions increases by 25%. The hydrodynamic phase of the evolution starts with a wider rapidity profile and smaller entropy.